AHS International, the world’s premier professional vertical flight technical society, congratulates AeroVelo, Inc. for winning its Igor I. Sikorsky Human Powered Helicopter Competition for the first time since the Society established it 33 years ago.

“This is an incredible accomplishment,” said Mike Hirschberg, executive director of AHS International. “For a third of a century, the AHS Sikorsky Prize has eluded the best minds and technology available. The technological and theoretical advancements achieved in pursuit of our challenge have been astounding.”

Team Gamera, the human-powered helicopter student team from the University of Maryland’s A. James Clark School of Engineering, congratulates the Canadian AeroVelo team on their recent flight that fulfilled the requirements of the American Helicopter Society (AHS) International’s Igor I. Sikorsky Human Powered Helicopter Competition.

Three human powered vehicle teams have flown in the past year, and the boundary of human powered VTOL flight has been pushed beyond the 60 second mark. But even with the incredible advancements seen in human powered helicopter technology in the past year, the challenge of the AHS Igor I. Sikorsky Human Powered Helicopter prize still remains unclaimed after 32 years. However, unlike years past, it is safe to say that it will not stay that way forever.

Over the past three years, tremendous progress has been made in pursuit of the AHS Igor I. Sikorsky Human Powered Helicopter (HPH) Competition, with a half dozen official registrants for the Competition. Recent progress has been made by several teams, with three related here.

Mark Miller, Sikorsky vice president of research and engineering, cites
the “very creative way” AeroVelo took advantage of the flexible
structure as an example of the “passion, drive and ingenuity” brought
out by the competition

It is fitting that, in Sikorsky Aircraft’s 90th year, the prize for human-powered helicopter flight established 33 years ago by the American Helicopter Society in the name of company founder and industry pioneer Igor Sikorsky should finally be won.

Aviation
history was made in an indoor soccer field just outside Toronto last
month when a pair of former University of Toronto engineering students
relied on pedal power to fly their helicopter into the record books.

Up until
this year, the AHS had never awarded the prize to anyone due to its
extremely strict guidelines, which include a flight duration of 60
seconds and altitude of 3 meters (9.8 ft) while remaining in a 10 meter
(32.8 ft) square.

The
highly-coveted Igor I. Sikorsky Human Powered Helicopter Competition —
known as the AHS Sikorsky prize for short — was awarded for the first
time in its history Thursday to AeroVelo, a Toronto-based engineering
team made up of University of Toronto students, alumni and volunteers.

Mike Hirschberg, executive director of AHS International, asks if sustained human-powered helicopter flight will ever become a reality, as his organization continues to challenge engineeers through the AHS Sikorsky prize.

As part of our continuing series "On The Road," Steve Hartman meets a group of engineering students from the University of Maryland who are fighting funding gaps and gravity to find a way to make a human-powered helicopter fly.

The [AeroVelo] helicopter is designed to operate under human power and was built to compete in the American Helicopter Society Sikorsky prize. The team is doing tests through the week with the goal of reaching three meters and staying airborne for 60 seconds.

A group of [University of Maryland] Clark School of Engineering students has set their sights high with a human propelled helicopter called “Gamera.” The challenge is one issued by the American Helicopter Society that has stumped the aerospace engineering community for years.

Tomorrow we’ll be making another attempt at the AHS Sikorsky Prize. This last week we installed small aluminum inserts to fix the stripping problem we had last week, and we’ve adjusted all structural lines to their final positions. We’re confident, collected and ready. Wish us luck!

University of Maryland engineering student Colin Gore performs a test flight in Baltimore on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013, in a one-man, human-powered helicopter that he and fellow students designed and built.

The team already holds the record for the longest human-powered flight and the highest altitude, but so far has not met all of the requirements of the Sikorsky prize in a single flight. That could change today when the team attempts another flight.

“We are very close but have not met the requirements of the AHS Sikorsky Prize yet. To get there, we need to implement a control/steering system as well as reduce our weight where we can. These tasks take time, effort, and money to complete. Should we win this competition we will be putting this money towards improving Gamera in our last big push over the finish line in 2013!”

Getting a helicopter 3 meters off the ground for 1 minute doesn't seem like much of an achievement, but doing it without the power of a motorized engine has stumped engineers for the entirety of human history. We spoke with PhD student and Project Manager William Staruk and pilot Colin Gore to learn more about the project and see what's next.

“Daily Planet” did an extended feature on the AeroVelo Atlas project. The Atlas segment starts about 8 minutes into the program. An extended version of the construction footage is also available at www.discoverychannel.ca/Article.aspx?aid=46352.

Ever since Leonardo Da Vinci sketched plans for a bird-like machine in one of his notebooks, hundreds of inventors have tried to engineer their way into the skies. But flying under human power — and human power alone — isn't an easy task.

The AeroVelo Atlas human powered helicopter made its first flight on Tuesday, August 28, 2012, as part of the AHS Igor I. Sikorsky Human Powered Helicopter Competition. They are now the third human powered helicopter now flying.

For years, many assumed that flight required more lift and more power than the human body alone could provide (although the admonitions did little to stop myriad failed attempts). But inventors persisted.